Page 1 - Mid Valley Times 2-4-21 E-edition

Thursday, February 4, 2021
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Dinuba Chamber honors winners online
Vol. 2, No. 31
Maria McElroy named Junior Citizen of Year
By Jon Earnest
Mid Valley Times
Dinuba honored its top citizens for 2020 on Jan. 28 in an unprecedented manner — in front of a video camera recording for a next day broadcast on social media.
Because of COVID-19, the annual awards
gala hosted by the Dinuba Chamber of Com- merce didn't gather before hundreds at the Dinuba Veterans Memorial Building. Instead, the award winners were individually record- ed and honored— socially distanced in front of a limited gathering at the Alta Historical Society.
All told, six recipients were honored as the city's top citizens for 2020: Maria McElroy, Junior Citizen of the Year; Arshpreet Pannu,
See CHAMBERAWARDSonpageA18
Maria McElroy, right, smiled as she was presented her crys- tal award for Dinuba Junior Citizen of the Year from Sandy Sills, Dinuba Cham- ber of Commerce executive director, at the Jan. 28 video shoot of the awards.
Jon Earnest / Mid Valley Times
Coronavirus Update
Active
cases
steadily
decline
MVT Staff Report
Active, positive cases of COVID-19 appear to be steadi- ly declining — sharply on the downtick in some areas — as the population of Fresno and Tulare counties slowly gets vaccinated.
Both the Fresno and Tulare counties' websites were slight- ly lagging on updates when it came to cases, but when re- leased the numbers showed the percentage of positive cases were lower than this point the previous week.
In six days, Fresno Coun- ty's positive test rate had plummeted from 16.2 percent to 12.9 percent up for Feb. 1. There was a slight spike back to 13.2 percent in the Feb 2 re- port, and deaths had risen by 101 (to 1,185) during the week although hospitalizations were
See VIRUS on page A2
Suspected arson at SUSD
Juanita Adame / Mid Valley Times
Debris was scattered along the backside of the Sanger Unified School District Office on Feb. 1 after someone attempted to burn the door on the building earlier that morning or the night before.
One of building's back doors gets burned in early morning fire
By Juanita Adame
Mid Valley Times
Officials with the Sanger Unified School District ar- rived at their main office on the morning of Feb. 1 and dis- covered that someone had set fire to one of the building’s back doors sometime over- night.
Firefighters responded to a call for fire at the location sometime after 4 a.m.
The fire was quickly extin- guished and officials did not say if the person who started
SeeARSONonpage A2
Reedley council OKs tweaks to tech policies
MVT Staff Report
The Reedley City Council has ap- proved minor changes to the city's per- sonnel policies and procedures manual when it comes to use of the city's social media sites.
In the lone administrative action tak- en at the Jan. 26 meeting, the council unanimously voted to update changes in the "Use of Technology" section in the
manual. The policy governs the use of city-owned computers, email, network access and telephones.
In a joint effort by city staff and Scott Cross, city attorney, the update makes it clearer on who has the right to post content on behalf of the city. In addition, it provides the proper etiquette for employees who make posts or re- spond to city-related social media.
Minor changes also were made in
how employees handle California Pub- lic Records Act requests and the city's right to access and search all city-owned devices,
Also during the meeting, council members received an update on the sta- tus of the underfunded landscape light- ing and maintenance districts project.
The next regular Reedley City Coun- cil meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tues- day, Feb. 9.
Fairmont teacher wins state Ag in the Classroom award
By Jon Earnest
Mid Valley Times
Christine Klistoff, who serves as the Sanger Unified School District's Ag In the Classroom instructor from her base at Fairmont Elementary (K-8) School, has been honored by the Cali- fornia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom as its outstanding edu- cator for 2020-2021.
Klistoff was honored during a video ceremony by the state organization on Jan. 27. Her acceptance speech and story came in a five-minute video that was played during the program.
"About 20 years ago, I attended my first Ag in the Classroom conference," Klistoff said in the video. "And it had such an impact on me and the teach- ers that attended, that I came back to school with a fire in me that I was go- ing to make sure my students under-
stood everything there was to know about agriculture."
After attending
multiple conferenc-
es to learn about all
different counties
in the state when it
comes to their ag
commodities, she
helped spearhead
Sanger Unified's
establishment of the Fairmont Farm Program. As the Ag in the Classroom teacher, she instructs more than 600 stu- dents grades kindergarten through eight weekly about Ag Science standards.
Klistoff formerly taught third- graders before taking on the Ag in the Classroom responsibility. At Fair- mont, students run farmer's markets at
See KLISTOFF on page A18
Christine Klistoff
Video Image Courtesy Fairmont Elementary School
Students and staff work at the Fairmont Farm next to the K-8 school campus in this undated video from the Jan. 27 online ceremony.
Classifieds - A9 Directory - A6 Legals - A12-15 Sports - A9 Lifestyle - A7 Lights & Sirens - A3, A-5 Health & Fitness - A16-17 Obituaries - A2-3, A5 Opinion - A4